Update:As per a tweet from the official Twitter handle of the GST Council on the evening of 1st Feb, 2018, it has been decided to extend the trial phase for generation of e-way bill, both for inter and intra-State movement of goods, in view of the difficulties faced by businesses in generating the e-way bill due to technical glitches. It shall be made compulsory from a date to be announced.

At the 22nd GST Council meeting, it was decided and recommended that the e-way bill rules in GST shall be introduced in a staggered manner from 1st January, 2018, and will be rolled out nationwide from 1st April, 2018. However, at the 24th GST Council meeting, it was announced that the e-way bill rules, GST specific, will be live from the 1st of February, 2018 – a full two months ahead of the earlier plan. The response still seemed to be positive, as 15 states had already started to use the trial facility seamlessly to generate over 2 lakh e-way bills every day. But on the first day itself of going live, the e-way bill GST rules had to be deferred yet again due to technical glitches appearing in the portal. As per the e-way bill rules latest information, talks are still in progress with industry experts and customers to work out a feasible technology and timeline for the same.

Nevertheless, the e-way bill may be expected to be live again in a few days, and thus it is imperative for businesses to be thorough with the e-way bill rules.

E-way Bill Rules – A Background

Considering the previous taxation regime, the Central government was empowered to levy duties and taxes on the manufacturing and rendering of services, while the State governments were empowered to levy taxes on the intra-state sale of goods, in which movement of goods happen within state jurisdictions. When the sale of goods would involve movement of goods across different states, the Centre was empowered to levy tax on such sales, and the revenue so collected, was shared by the Centre and the State.

This is the main reason, why strict monitoring of the movement of goods was required - both within the state and outside the state. The fact that there has always been rampant evasion of taxes and leakage of tax revenue was one of the prime reasons why most states over the years, had multiple check-posts along their national highways and borders. These check-posts mainly monitored the movement of goods and ensured that the relevant duties and taxes have been paid on the goods being transported.

Thus, a person causing movement of goods had to be equipped with various documents like invoice, challan, road permits, way bill, and so on which needed to be produced at the check-post of most states for inspection. Apart from these, certain states had mandated the transporter of goods to obtain the transit pass or declaration form. However, with the evolution of technology, there were significant efforts by various states to digitalize the processes involved in the movement of goods - such as e-Sugam in Karnataka and Form 402 in Gujarat, which are prevalent way bill rules. However, the paperwork and cross-checks still remained in place, which was one of the main reasons why a system based on technology was explored, which could serve the purpose of the whole nation. And thus, e-way bill rules under GST came into existence.

E-way Bill Rules in GST

GST E-way Bill Rules for Documentation and Inspection

As per the GST way bill rules, the transporter or the person in charge of a conveyance should carry the following documents:

1. The invoice or bill of supply or delivery challan

2. A physical copy of the e-way bill or the e-way bill number.

At the place of verification, the officer may intercept any vehicle to verify the E-way bill or the E-way bill number in physical form for all interstate and intrastate movement of goods. On the ground of suspicion of tax evasion, a physical verification of the vehicle can be carried out by an officer after obtaining necessary approval from the commissioner or an officer authorized on his behalf. As per the e-way rules, if the physical verification of vehicle is done at one place – within the state or in any other state, no further physical verification will be carried out again during the transit, unless specific information of tax evasion is made available subsequently.

After every inspection, as per the e-way bill rules and regulations, the officer needs to record the details of the inspection of goods in Part A of Form GST EWB 03 within 24 hrs of inspection and the final report must be recorded in Part B of Form GST EWB 03 within 3 days of inspection. If the vehicle is detained for more than 30 minutes, the transporter has an option to complain by uploading the details in Form GST EWB 04.

GST E-way Bill Rules for E-way Bill Format

As per the rules of e-way bill, the e-way bill format in GST comprises of 2 parts – Part A and Part B.

The Part A of E-way Bill in Form EWB 01 aims to collect the details of consignment, and associated details, such as GSTIN of the recipient, place of delivery, Invoice or Challan number, value of goods, HSN Code, reason for transportation and the transport document number – which could indicate either one of the Goods Receipt Number, Railway Receipt Number, Airway Bill Number or Bill of Lading Number.
In Part B of Form EWB 01, the vehicle number in which goods are transported needs to be mentioned. This will be filed by the transporter in the common portal.

As such, if the e-way bill new rules are implemented with care, it is expected to significantly change the logistics scenario in India, and make cross-border movement of goods a much more seamless activity for businesses across the country.

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